1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to new uses of 4-hydroxy-5-methyl-3[2H]-furanone and a method for producing the same, and particularly it is related to an anti-oxidative composition and a skin-whitening composition which comprise as an active ingredient 4-hydroxy-5-methyl-3[2H]-furanone, and to a method for producing the same from the plant of Pinaceae species.
2. Description of Prior Art
Conventional synthetic anti-oxidants have a drawback that they contain toxic materials which may be incorporated during the synthesis process. To avoid this problem, a naturally occurring anti-oxidant as an alternative of synthetic anti-oxidant are proposed(Phytochemistry, 27(4): 969-978(1988)). Thereafter, many naturally occurring anti-oxidants are developed and examples of typical natural anti-oxidants may include L-ascorbic acid, kojic acid, their derivatives and the like.
The present inventors also made extensive researches to develop a naturally occurring anti-oxidant which shows an excellent anti-oxidation activity as well as can be safely employed. Particularly, the inventors screened various plants for their anti-oxidation action, and as a result thereof, found that the plants of Pinaceae species showed a stronger anti-oxidation action than other plants. We made further studies to find out the active components having anti-oxidation action from the plants of Pinaceae species and, for the first time, isolated and identified the active component, 4-hydroxy-5-methyl-3[2H]-furanone.
Although there has been suggested that the plants of Pinaceae species show an anti-oxidation activity, the active compound has not yet isolated nor identified.
Moreover, we surprisingly found that 4-hydroxy-5-methyl-3[2H]-furanone also has an ability to inhibit melanin formation.